Tomorrow Never Dies : 20000201

How did you take the meaning of “The Fragile”?

Most people may have thought he referred to himself or his mind by ‘fragile’. But, to my surprise, what Trent himself brought as things that he referred to by “The Fragile” was not only himself. “I wanted to express that at any moment anything can die or break.”
They can be everything, or all that exist, including himself. ‘Fragile’ means ‘finite’. A relationship with someone can be one thing, and feelings like love toward someone or something can be another. And they can be things that exist and, in a broad sense, lives as well.

As a result, you may interpret it as “this world isn’t infinite after all”, but I think Trent’s current position on his life is different.
I guess the song that shows his position is “We’re In This Together”.

“Me” and “you” that appear in this song can take as a listener and Trent or Trent and someone, but I think both may be Trent. Well, just like two guys from “Fight Club”. And I suppose “this” can mean “Trent himself”. In other words, these “two” are Trent’s dark side and light side, or Trent’s past and present.
These can be said to be part of “a pair of opposite elements” that I mentined before and that dominate this album.

“I accepted my karma”, said Trent in an interview, but “karma” is some kind of instinct with which your hands together with someone’s hands or even all the power you can gather from inside and outside can’t be comparable.
And I suppose Trent’s “karma” may be the human dark side that everyone has, in case of Trent, the human dark side that “a person who aspired to superstars and finally has reached the place” or “a person who feels pleasure to be treated as celebrity” has.

Being almost controled by this human dark side, Trent was tormented even by playing music, but he may have decided to shape his dark side, to look at it and to face up to it, I suppose. ….I think this was healing for himself too. In fact, Trent told that “challenging himself in the toughest way ever” was his healing. Not avoiding it, killing it, ignoring it or fearing it, but accepting it and then removing it.

I think he may have acknowledged its presence and tried to control it as well as himself by conflicting.
I suppose this situation is sung in “We’re In This Together”.

I feel it means a great deal that he released this song following the “The Day The World Went Away/Starfuckers, Inc.” single. If “The Day The World Went Away/Starfuckers, Inc.” is clearance of past, it will be “We’re In This Together” that I think shows the direction of current Trent. “Me” and “you” certainly can be taken as Trent and fans, and as we, fans, feel like we are led to a new world, our feelings that is “ah, we are back” heighten. But it also can be taken as the direction that Trent aims at.

So, to me the “We’re In This Together” video clip with that lonely ending mysteriously seems the indication of his will that “I will accept all my weakness and, even if I become along, I will confront it and move forward”. This song always gives me fresh power. I can feel that I will start an endless adventure and keep living. Let’s get up and don’t stop here, says it.
It’s natural tomorrow will come. But you may not have tomorrow. No one can guarantee you will still exist in several hours. Everyone has this anxiety. If there is no eternity, all you can do is keep creating as long as you are alive. So he travels to show himself in person and the power of this album, with no time to sleep. To show a perfect 1 hour-plus performance, he spends several times as much effort beforehand. I think he really loves his job now.

I see this tough courage toward life in “The Fragile”.
And I feel that Trent is now living with a feeling this sad yet powerful.
“The Fragile” isn’t him who has accepted weakness or him who is weak. It doesn’t mean his resignation either. It means his feeling that he loves everything, including himself, as well as every moment he lives, and that he lives hard. I’m so glad at the fact that he now cherishes himself and his life this much.

Therefore, whenever I listen to the album, I think, “Live and do my best, because there may not be tomorrow.” No one can tell tomoroow will certainly come to me. That’s why.